Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Walter Crane

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was an English illustrator, painter, and designer primarily known for his imaginative illustrations of children’s books.

The son of the portrait painter and miniaturist Thomas Crane (1808–59), Crane is considered to be among the most influential and  most prolific children’s book creators of his generation.Crane’s work featured some of the more colorful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children’s stories for decades to come. The artist was one of the strongest contributors to the child’s nursery motif that English children’s illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the later 19th century.His work featured some of the more colorful and detailed images that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children’s stories for decades to come.Crane was a strong believer in the ‘unity of design’ in book illustration, and often printed the words of the texts or poems himself.

Crane’s view was that the union of the calligrapher’s and the decorator’s art was one secret of the beauty of the old illuminated books. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children’s books, ceramic tiles, wallpapers and other decorative arts.He devoted much time and energy to the work of the Art Workers Guild, of which he was master in 1888 and 1889 and to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, which he helped to found in 1888.

More of Walter Crane‘s illustrations can be found at https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/walter-crane and https://www.wikiart.org/en/walter-crane.